


When Your Heart Beats Hereafter

by MeteorAtDusk



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman and Robin (Comics)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Comfort/Angst, Gen, Near Death Experiences
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-21
Updated: 2014-06-21
Packaged: 2018-02-05 15:16:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1823050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeteorAtDusk/pseuds/MeteorAtDusk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You can't stay here."</p>
            </blockquote>





	When Your Heart Beats Hereafter

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this months ago when rumors were floating that they were going to kill Dick, so any relevance it does (or does not) have to canon is pretty much coincidental. It was more meant as a 'what if' and less to do with any specific storyline.

  “You can’t stay here.”

  He hears the voice but it doesn’t register.  It hovers just out of the range of his understanding and he knows it is important, he knows the words mean something, but they flutter past him with no recognition and he doesn’t have the energy to catch them.  He has been so tired for so long, running headlong with no finish line and no escape.  The haze is a welcome respite.  His limbs feel lighter than they have since he was a child throwing himself off the precipice, reveling in the joy of flight.  A warmth tingles through him like comfort and satisfaction, hot chocolate on a snowy day, and fresh cookies during the rain.  It feels like a hug from someone you love and haven’t seen in far too long.

  There is a hand in his, he realizes with slow wonder.  Small but calloused, clutching at his fingers like it is afraid they will slip away.  It is okay, he feels the sudden urge to say, to calm this person who holds his hand with such soft desperation.

  He isn’t going anywhere.

  “Grayson, listen to me,” the voice speaks again in quiet frustration, a plea that he hears, finally, can’t help but hear when he realizes it is uttered in a voice he has missed so keenly that it freezes his lungs and stings his eyes even now. 

  “ _Listen to me_ ,” it says.  “You _can’t_ _stay here_.”

  Dick Grayson opens his eyes.

  “…Damian?”

  “ _Tt._ ”

  Damian huffs at him, but his grip on Dick’s hand doesn’t slacken as his mentor stares.  The boy is in his Robin costume, cape draped dramatically behind him, but he has discarded his gloves and peeled away the mask.  It’s Damian’s clear blue eyes that look back at him now, not pitiless whiteout lenses but the solid gaze of the little boy that had been his partner, his student, and his little brother.

  His little brother is _here_.

  “Damian,” he whispers, blinking away the images – a bloodstained cape, shattered arrows, green gloves folded over a gaping wound – that accompany that name now.  These are things he does not want to remember but cannot ignore, because Damian is dead.

  _Damian is dead._

  Damian is real and solid and sitting here beside him, and Dick does the only thing he can do in this situation; he drags the boy into his arms and holds on tight, burying his face in the sleek folds of his cape where his tears will fall unseen.

  It speaks volumes that Damian lets him do this with no protest.

  “How…?” Dick manages, voice breaking when small hands come to rest on his back.  For a long second Damian leans into him, but too soon he pulls away.  He searches Dick’s face, and as always his eyes are far too serious for someone so young.

  “Your heart has stopped,” Damian says, the bluntness of his words softened by the tremor threaded through them.  He looks away, Dick following his line of sight into their strange, empty surroundings.  “We are not dissimilar in that way,” the boy murmurs, and Dick’s heart breaks all over again.

  “Damian—”

  “You cannot stay here, Grayson,” the boy interrupts, gaze sharp and expression unreadable.  “They will try to revive you but you must _want_ to go back.”  He looks down at his clenched hands and says in a voice too small, “You need to go back.”

  Dick looks at him and breathes in, closing his eyes against this solemn little boy, against the peace in his surroundings, against the mess he left behind.  He breathes out, looks back.

  “I miss you,” he says helplessly.

  Damian looks at him again and smirks, but Dick can see his eyes and it makes him want to cry again.

  “Of course you do,” he says, tone not half as lofty as he probably intended.  “You’re hopeless without me.  But,” he stops for a moment, not quite a catch in his voice, and continues, “but father is hopeless without you.  And I will still be here when you return.”

  Dick nods silently and opens his arms.  For only the second time in his memory Damian goes willingly into the embrace, and in a small, quiet eternity Dick hugs his brother, his Robin, close, and pretends that this time he won’t have to let go. 

  As they part, he ruffles Damian’s hair.

  “I’ll see you later, Little D,” he says softly.

  Damian smiles.

  “I will be here waiting, Richard.”

  Dick Grayson opens his eyes.

 

 


End file.
